One of the best things about Christmas is that we usually get some excellent Test series to look forward to and one of those gets underway on Saturday when the current top two in the World Test Championship standings meet in Brisbane when Australia host South Africa.
These two could very well be competing in the final of that tournament in 2023 and these three matches might give us a good indication as to who the best Test team in the world is right now. Both sides will be itching to make a good start to the series.
Australia
I hate to use the term warmed up for a series when a team plays another series against a Test nation but the way it played out that is exactly what the Aussies did against West Indies earlier this month. Australia won both of those matches and while West Indies were more competitive than many expected in the first one, the longer it went on the more Australia dominated and they’ll be feeling good about themselves heading into this match.
Australia batted tremendously in both of those matches and that is largely the task at hand here too. They face a very tough bowling attack here so they will need to be at their very best with the bat to put up good scores. They might not need that level of score though because they will fancy their own bowling unit to keep the South Africa batters honest. Australia have a very good record at The Gabba which will make them feel good heading into this match.
South Africa
You can always tell when a team are serious about a series because they will ensure they get a warm up match in if they are. South Africa have had a warm up match so they should be able to hit the ground running here, although I think it is fair to expect them to improve as the series progresses. This will be the first time we will have seen South Africa in red ball action in Test matches since they lost a series in England back in September.
On that occasion their batting let them down and they will need their batters to step up to the occasion if they are going to be competitive in this series. In one way they will appreciate playing against the Kookaburra ball but this is a strong Australia bowling unit so they will certainly be tested. Those batters might need their own bowlers to step up and keep them in the game and there is definitely every chance of that because this Proteas seam attack in particular is elite.
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Team News
Australia will have their captain Pat Cummins back for this match after he missed the day-night Test against West Indies. Josh Hazlewood misses out with an injury though so Scott Boland keeps his place in the team.
Rassie van der Dussen and Temba Bavuma both missed the series against England but they are both likely to be involved in this match. Keegan Peterson is out injured while South Africa will need to decide whether to play seven batters or play the all-rounder in Marco Jansen.
Betting
Pat Cummins has an excellent record in Brisbane and having had a couple of weeks off he should be fresh enough to do some damage at The Gabba again. He has a performance line of 115.5 points and that feels well within range of arguably the best bowler in the world right now. Realistically we are looking for six wickets for him to cover this total but he is a good enough batter to get 16 runs, particularly if he bats twice, so it might be that five wickets gets the job done.
Cummins has taken at least five wickets in each of his last four matches on this ground and if he does that again then we are likely to be in business. There is no Josh Hazlewood here so Cummins is likely to get some of the new ball in this match which should further assist the wicket taking. I think this South Africa batting might need a match in this intensity to come to the party so this really does look like a good chance for the Australian captain to cover his performance.
Tips
Back P.Cummins’ Performance – Over 115.5pts for a 3/10 stake at 1.83 with Bet365
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